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Many Join Saudi Online Platform to Teach Arabic Calligraphy

Alkhattat Platform courses allow Arabic calligraphers to excel and cultivate their creativity
Alkhattat Platform courses allow Arabic calligraphers to excel and cultivate their creativity
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Many Join Saudi Online Platform to Teach Arabic Calligraphy

Alkhattat Platform courses allow Arabic calligraphers to excel and cultivate their creativity
Alkhattat Platform courses allow Arabic calligraphers to excel and cultivate their creativity

The Ministry of Culture announced its launch of the first electronic platform to teach Arabic calligraphy and Islamic decoration, with support from the Quality of Life Program, one of the programs of the Kingdom’s Vision 2030, under the title “Alkhattat Platform” (Calligrapher Platform).

The electronic platform will be supervised by a group of professional calligraphers from the Kingdom and the Arab world. Through the platform, they will teach the basics of Arabic calligraphy, its arts, and methods via training courses, projects, and professional workshops.

Nasser Maymoun, a prominent Saudi calligrapher, praised the initiative put forth by the culture ministry especially after Saudi Minister of Culture Prince Badr bin Abdullah bin Farhan having announced that 2020 would be designated as the “Year of Arabic Calligraphy.”

Maymoun said that it is a great start to presenting the work of Arabic calligraphers and it is part of promoting Islamic and Arabic heritage.

The platform offers various training courses, including professional courses in the types of Arabic calligraphy, explanation of the alphabets and how to combine them, writing the words and expressions, improving handwriting, training in making calligraphic paintings and artwork in Arabic calligraphy, letter formations, gilding, Islamic decoration, drawing and coloring, the art of paper marbling and Ebru (needle art).

The platform will also give the trainee the opportunity to develop Arabic computer fonts by learning designs and programming fonts.

Alkhattat Platform founder Mohammed Al-Sharqawi told Asharq Al-Awsat that it was important to keep up with technological advances.

Sharqawi revealed that, due to the coronavirus, the Year of Arabic Calligraphy was extended until 2021.

He added that the platform first launched in 2018 and has over 19,000 users from 30 different countries around the world. Top tier calligraphers have joined the platform and were selected to teach.

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Water Levels Plummet at Drought-Hit Iraqi Reservoir

Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)
Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)
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Water Levels Plummet at Drought-Hit Iraqi Reservoir

Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)
Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq, director of the Dukan Dam facility, gives an interview by the reservoir northwest of Iraq's northeastern city of Sulaimaniyah in the autonomous Kurdistan region on June 4, 2025, where waters have been receding due to a mix of factors including lower rainfall, severe drought, and diversion of inflowing rivers from Iran. (AFP)

Water levels at Iraq's vast Dukan Dam reservoir have plummeted as a result of dwindling rains and further damming upstream, hitting millions of inhabitants already impacted by drought with stricter water rationing.

Amid these conditions, visible cracks have emerged in the retreating shoreline of the artificial lake, which lies in northern Iraq's autonomous Kurdistan region and was created in the 1950s.

Dukan Lake has been left three quarters empty, with its director Kochar Jamal Tawfeeq explaining its reserves currently stand at around 1.6 billion cubic meters of water out of a possible seven billion.

That is "about 24 percent" of its capacity, the official said, adding that the level of water in the lake had not been so low in roughly 20 years.

Satellite imagery analyzed by AFP shows the lake's surface area shrank by 56 percent between the end of May 2019, the last year it was completely full, and the beginning of June 2025.

Tawfeeq blamed climate change and a "shortage of rainfall" explaining that the timing of the rains had also become irregular.

Over the winter season, Tawfeeq said the Dukan region received 220 millimeters (8.7 inches) of rain, compared to a typical 600 millimeters.

- 'Harvest failed' -

Upstream damming of the Little Zab River, which flows through Iran and feeds Dukan, was a secondary cause of the falling water levels, Tawfeeq explained.

Also buffeted by drought, Iran has built dozens of structures on the river to increase its own water reserves.

Baghdad has criticized these kinds of dams, built both by Iran and neighboring Türkiye, accusing them of significantly restricting water flow into Iraq via the Tigris and Euphrates rivers.

Iraq, and its 46 million inhabitants, have been intensely impacted by the effects of climate change, experiencing rising temperatures, year-on-year droughts and rampant desertification.

At the end of May, the country's total water reserves were at their lowest level in 80 years.

On the slopes above Dukan lies the village of Sarsian, where Hussein Khader Sheikhah, 57, was planting a summer crop on a hectare of land.

The farmer said he hoped a short-term summer crop of the kind typically planted in the area for an autumn harvest -- cucumbers, melons, chickpeas, sunflower seeds and beans -- would help him offset some of the losses over the winter caused by drought.

In winter, in another area near the village, he planted 13 hectares mainly of wheat.

"The harvest failed because of the lack of rain," he explained, adding that he lost an equivalent of almost $5,700 to the poor yield.

"I can't make up for the loss of 13 hectares with just one hectare near the river," he added.

- 'Stricter rationing' -

The water shortage at Dukan has affected around four million people downstream in the neighboring Sulaimaniyah and Kirkuk governorates, including their access to drinking water.

For more than a month, water treatment plants in Kirkuk have been trying to mitigate a sudden, 40 percent drop in the supplies reaching them, according to local water resource official Zaki Karim.

In a country ravaged by decades of conflict, with crumbling infrastructure and floundering public policies, residents already receive water intermittently.

The latest shortages are forcing even "stricter rationing" and more infrequent water distributions, Karim said.

In addition to going door-to-door to raise awareness about water waste, the authorities were also cracking down on illegal access to the water network.

In the province of roughly two million inhabitants, the aim is to minimize the impact on the provincial capital of Kirkuk.

"If some treatment plants experience supply difficulties, we will ensure that there are no total interruptions, so everyone can receive their share," Karim said.